Bio

I am a public administration scholar focusing on the fields of collaborative governance and policy process with an expertise
and interest in local food and environmental governance.

My research utilizes a policy process lens to explore: (1) representation in collaborative fora as well as the influence diverse representation has on collaborative outputs and outcomes, and (2) the evolution of policy design. As such, I have developed a research agenda focused on: (1) examining the underlying assumptions of collaborative governance by operationalizing and measuring concepts such as representation, participation, institutional evolution, and interpersonal conflict, and (2) using advance computational and network methods to evaluate patterns of policy evolution as it is rooted in policy process theory.

This focus is aided by skills in advanced network analysis, computational text mining, and natural language processing. In addition to these computational skills, I have also designed and administered survey and interview research projects, positioning myself as a competent mixed methods researcher.

As a Principal Investigator, I was recently (Dec. 2025) awarded a $500,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Energy System Interactions program for their project, “Collaborative Approaches to Electrification, Load Growth, and Demand Management in Rural Electric Co-ops.” More information about the Collaborative Approaches to Rural Electric Strategies with Load (CARESL) group is located on our project’s webpage: https://www.caresl.group/

Area(s) of Expertise

- Governance
- Food Systems
- Food Policy Councils
- Representation

- Domains: local food systems, environmental justice, environmental and sustainability policy
- Fields: Policy process, collaborative governance, network governance, public management
- Topics: collaborative policy-making, representation, policy decision-making, policy evolution and diffusion
- Methods: network analysis, computational data analysis, survey and interview analysis, natural language processing, mixed methods

Publications

• Mapping Measurement to Theory in Policy Evolution: A Case of Net Metering Policies of the United States , Policy Studies Journal (2026)
• The Social Architecture of Collaborations in Four Watersheds: Convergence, Path Dependence, and the Collaborative Life-Cycle Framework , Administration & Society (2026)
• Evaluating Conflict, Interest Advancement, and Representation in Collaborative Governance , Public Administration (2025)
• Transitioning from planning to implementation: comparing collaborative governance and developmental dynamics in 4 watersheds , Policy Sciences (2025)
• Assessing drivers of sustained engagement in collaborative governance arrangements , Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (2024)
• Evaluating conflict in collaborative environmental governance: A study of environmental justice councils , Review of Policy Research (2024)
• Understanding policy evolution using institutional grammar: net metering policies in the United States , Policy Design and Practice (2024)
• Understanding the Emergence of Computational Institutional Science: A Review of Computational Modeling of Institutions and Institutional Dynamics , International Journal of the Commons (2024)
• Exploring collaboration dynamics and representation in environmental justice councils , Public Administration (2023)
• Collaborative governance design in local food systems in the United States , Policy Design and Practice (2022)

View all publications